Clear X Update

The game's journey to completion.

Kurapika handed the tree seed, representing life, to the elder before him.

"Here, the seed you wanted."

Kurapika looked rather disheveled at this moment, while Pairo behind him had clothes covered in grime.

Even Nion looked as if she had rolled on the ground.

Clearly, obtaining these tree species was no easy feat.

"Wow, that's amazing! Thank you for bringing these tree seeds back. Now our forest will be back!" The elder in white robes said excitedly, holding his wooden staff. The tribal members behind him were also overjoyed and danced with glee.

"Come out, we can finally go home!" the elder said, scattering the seeds in his hand. The seeds flew into the sky, emitting a green light and evenly scattering onto the open ground in front of them.

As the seeds fell to the ground, one tender shoot after another broke through the soil and quickly grew into towering trees. They stood side by side in an orderly fashion, and the wasteland in front of them was transformed into a Dense Forest in an instant.

There seemed to be a path deep in the Dense Forest. The elder led his tribe members into the Dense Forest and then disappeared.

"Bang!"

Like a smoke explosion, a card appeared before them.

[001- One-Acre Dense Forest -SS-3]

[The entrance to Great Forest known as the "Mountain God's Courtyard." It is inhabited by a large number of unique fleas. All the animals are happy to be near humans.]

"Is this the last card?" Kevin and Melusina asked from behind.

They had been traveling elsewhere before, but then they received a message from Pairo, the gist of which was...

They are about to receive their Ninety-Nine card.

According to the initial guess, after collecting Ninety-Nine Specified Card, one might be able to obtain a clue to the final card.

"Come on, put it in."

Kurapika smiled and handed the card to Nion.

Nion excitedly took it and opened her magic book.

Page after page of Specified Card pages were already filled with all the cards.

She turned to the first page and placed the card in the slot.

The moment it was placed inside, a sound rang out in the sky, seemingly echoing in everyone's ears.

At this moment, all the players in the game couldn't help but look up at the sky.

"A notification to all players." The voice was familiar; it was the voice of the girl at the entrance every time they entered the game. Kevin and his friends had been coming and going frequently lately, so they knew it well.

"Just now, a player has collected Ninety-Nine cards from the Designated Pocket. To celebrate this achievement, a quiz competition will be held in ten minutes, and all players are required to participate."

"There are a total of one hundred questions in the quiz competition, all of which are related to the Specified Card."

"The player with the highest correct answer rate will receive a reward: the Specified Card NO.000 [Ruler's Blessing]. Please do not close your card collection book yet; please wait a moment."

As she finished speaking, Melusina smiled at the three of them, "Looks like the three of you are really going to clear the game. Congratulations." The three of them smiled and then simply sat cross-legged on the ground.

A beam of light appeared in the sky, and group after group of people arrived beside them, including the Zetzela team. They looked at Kurapika and his two companions and shook their heads helplessly.

"Sigh, we're still a step behind you guys." They've collected ninety-three cards, not far from Ninety-Nine, but they're still considerably slower than Kurapika.

"The questions are all related to the Specified Card, so it seems they're related to your card-collecting experience. Most of your cards were collected by yourselves, so barring any unforeseen circumstances, you should have the highest chance of answering correctly." He sighed, realizing that even this last card seemed unlikely to be obtained.

As he spoke, he turned to look at the players who had come with him. "You guys, don't even think about it. You definitely won't get high scores on these questions."

"Hehe, who knows? If I get the card, you'll have to pay to buy it," one of the players said with a chuckle.

Clearly, they came here hoping to find an opportunity to steal it. If not, they planned to get the last card and sell it to Kurapika and the others. After all, they'd been playing this game for so long; they should at least have some profit, right?

The quiz has officially begun.

Question 1: What is the name of the elder who provided the clue for NO.001 [One-Acre Dense Forest]? A:

They just saw the old man off; how could they possibly forget this question?

However, apart from Kurapika and his two companions, everyone else was instantly at a loss. Kevin and Melusina also huddled together, occasionally answering one or two questions, but guessing randomly on the rest.

One question after another appeared, and the hundred questions seemed to be finished very quickly.

"The quiz is over. Now, we announce the highest scorer. In this quiz with a maximum score of 100, he/she achieved a score of 96. This player is [Kurapika]."

As soon as she finished speaking, Nion jumped up and hugged Kurapika. "Kurapika, you got the highest score! You're amazing!" she said, giving Kurapika a big kiss on the cheek.

"Oh! This—" Kurapika blushed instantly, freezing on the spot, his joy at being first place instantly overshadowed by his shyness.

"Crack!"

Melusina pressed the shutter of her camera.

"Haha! I got the treasure!"

Kevin looked at her quietly for a moment. "When did you take out the camera?"

This was such an absurd speed that he didn't even have time to react.

"Hmph, don't underestimate me!" Melusina hummed twice.

They always had cameras with them; after all, how could they travel around the game without taking pictures?

I never expected that Melusina would be so good at seizing the opportunity, instantly pulling out her camera.

"Sister Rosana will be very happy to see this."

"Light won't be happy," Kevin muttered from the side.

Kurapika and his two companions had recovered and huddled together.

"So we can now say we've officially cleared the game?"

I think so.

"Bang!" The three men's hands collided.

"Yeah!"

Kevin crossed his arms and watched the scene. Melusina pressed the shutter again. "They're still just kids."

An owl flew over and dropped a letter, Kurapika caught.

Upon opening it, I found several small items inside, including a card.

[110 - The Ruler's Invitation - SS-1]

[An invitation sent by the island's ruler, including a map marking the Castle's location and its emblem; only these two items grant entry.]

Does that mean only one person can go?

"That's normal. After all, this game is essentially a single-player game; it's just that everyone teams up."

So who will go?

"Of course it's Kurapika! Didn't he win the quiz?"

Following the sign, the group arrived at the foot of the Castle. Kevin and the others waited outside, while Kurapika entered the Castle. A blond boy had been waiting for some time.

Welcome to G City.

Please follow me.

It wasn't an NPC, it was a real person. Kurapika made that judgment. If he had just entered the game, he might not have been able to distinguish between NPCs and real people and would have needed to chat with them for a while to figure it out, but now he could tell the difference at a glance.

We continued walking through the Castle until we arrived at a room.

As he pushed open the door, a stench wafted out, causing Kurapika to frown involuntarily.

What came into view was a mountain of garbage, all sorts of things: machine parts, books, plates, beer bottles, plastic bottles, and some other things I couldn't even recognize.

"How dirty!" Kurapika couldn't help but think to himself.

"This is the player with the highest score —Kurapika."

"Oh! Come in."

A tall, thin man with an afro sat casually on a cushion, in front of him was a television set connected to a game console.

Kurapika searched for a landing spot and slowly walked inside.

"You must be the one who cleared the level. You look so young, that's impressive! Don't be shy, sit down wherever you like."

"Where can I even sit?" Kurapika thought helplessly, looking at the cardboard boxes, signs, and all sorts of odds and ends around him.

"Oh, sorry, but all you need to do is clean it up like this." He said, casually pushing the trash forward to make room. Kurapika walked over helplessly and sat down on the floor.

"Wait a moment."

The man Kurapika encountered started rummaging through things casually and quickly found a card, which he tossed to him. Kurapika caught it.

[000- The Ruler's Blessing -SS-1]

[Winning the Quiz Tournament will reward you with a Castle. Below the Castle is a village of ten thousand people who will live according to the laws and rules you set.]

"Now I've finally collected all one hundred cards," Kurapika, looking at the cards.

The man in front of him said, "Now that you've collected a hundred cards, the reward for clearing the level will appear!" He suddenly spoke excitedly, then paused, and helplessly started searching again. The blond boy who had led Kurapika in shook his head somewhat helplessly.

He quickly found it and handed a box to Kurapika. The box had the Greed Island symbol on it.

"Open it and take a look." Inside, there are three slots for holding cards, just like in the book.

"There are three slots inside, each holding three cards. These cards can then be taken out into the real world. Of course, the three cards cannot be the same, and they can only be chosen from a specified set of one hundred cards."

There are thousands of card categories in this game, with an extremely large number of numbers; it's impossible to bring them all into reality. Kurapika nodded; he wasn't surprised by this reward, as he had known it from the beginning.

"Oh dear, haven't I introduced myself yet?" he asked, looking at the blond boy next to him. The blond boy nodded helplessly.

"How rude of me, I apologize. Your name is Kurapika, right? I'm Duen, and this Lister. We're both considered producers of this game." Duen then leaned back on his cushion. "So, do you have any questions? If not, let's begin the completion celebration."

"Do you want to ask? Hmm." Kurapika pondered for a moment, then shook his head regretfully. "I don't have anything to ask. If I had to say, perhaps my uncle does."

"Is that so? That's a shame. Well then, let the celebration begin!"

The city below the Castle erupted in celebration. Almost all the NPCs in the game had gathered there, including all the players.

Many players were moved to tears, hugging each other, because someone had finally made it through the game. It seemed that they, the players trapped in the game, could finally leave. They had truly had enough of playing.

"To be honest, I feel a little ashamed. I should have done what my uncle did," said Pairo, sitting on the float with a wreath on his arm and arms crossed, with a helpless expression.

As for Nion, she was completely absorbed in the moment, constantly waving to the people around her, while the NPCs around her...

Even the players were cheering and clapping.

Kurapika, sitting next to him, smiled helplessly upon hearing this, feeling somewhat embarrassed as well.

They were sitting on a very conspicuous float, participating in a parade around the city.

The surrounding streets were packed with people celebrating for them.

"Thank goodness I didn't go up there, otherwise it would have been too weird," Kevin said, still shaken.

As for Melusina, she was now completely absorbed in filming, constantly finding the right spot to photograph the three people below and the surrounding environment.

They arrived at the Castle, where a large number of NPCs and players were able to enter and participate in the Castle.

Everyone was genuinely happy, and even the game's creators would play it if they wanted.

They even saw Razor, whom they had fought before.

When Kevin looked at him, Razor simply raised his beer in a gesture. Kevin also raised his glass and nodded.

After finishing his drink, he moved closer to Duen.

"You're one of the producers of this game, right?"

Duen glanced at him and nodded.

"You must be the uncle Kurapika was talking about, right? Hahaha, you're so young and already being called uncle?"

Are you actually much older than me?

Upon hearing this man's words, Kevin knew he was another unreliable fellow.

"Don't talk nonsense. I'm only in my early twenties, in the prime of my youth."

"Youth, ah, youth is wonderful." As someone approaching forty, he felt somewhat helpless.

"But I've heard Jin mention you. You must have bragged about something to that guy for him to show off his work on that masterpiece."

Upon hearing this, Kevin recalled that giving out Member Card to indicate his drug sales was a way of showing off? What a child.

"So, is there anything you want to ask?" Duen asked, looking at him.

Kevin nodded. "This game isn't over just because it's finished, right? But it seems like the Succession Ceremony needs to be readjusted to run again."

Duen's eyes lit up. "You know all this? That's really rare. But you're right, once someone clears the game, the game will have to be rescheduled and restarted, which will take another six months to a year."

"During this period, we also need to change some of the acquisition conditions for Specified Card to prevent previous strategy information from being reused and to avoid cheating."

Kevin nodded.

He's spent so much time in this game and done some research, so he's figured out a few things.

The game is also based on a large-scale Succession Ceremony, with the final winner completing the level and receiving three cards as a reward.

Once you complete the game, this version of the game is essentially over, and you'll need to update and restart the game.

"However, this time, we might have to change some of the game rules. Players killing each other is not what we want to see."

"It seems we really need players to play and test it out before we can see any flaws in this game," Duen said helplessly.

The game's rules are designed to prevent players from violently killing each other. However, with too many players, various unexpected events will occur, and loopholes in the rules will be exploited. This is unavoidable, which is why game updates are necessary.

"Can those Game Console still be used?"

"Of course you can, but if you use it during maintenance, you'll only get a notification that the server is down for maintenance. It will be back online in six months to a year."

"I see."

Kevin sat down and chatted with him.